I hope you will qualify that to some extent. The ruined post-war medieval cities of Germany and Poland were restored immidiately afterwards and they had beautiful cities (whilst updating them with underground car parks in the town square, very clever) we have the ugliest cities outside the old soviet union, precisely because we did not immidiately repair and restore our heritage. I agree revival now is pointless, but immidiate revival is not.

I'm not going to qualify it - it's pointless rebuilding something that was demolished 200+ years ago, which is when Coventry lost most of its surviving city fortifications - in fact the city wall was demolished 400+ years ago, with some gates surviving until the 18th and 19th centuries,. It's nothing to do with rebuilding after the war. A number of Coventry's surviving gems were in fact rebuilt (Ford's hospital & the Guild Hall).

Looks like I stand alone then! I think that the construction of timber framed buildings and a possible reconstruction of the city gate are excellent ideas. For me it's not about creating a tacky theme park feeling; it's about putting tried and tested quality buildings back into the city centre and putting them into use. It's also about social history - putting back some of the architecture once very typical to Coventry back into the city centre.

How exactly can a fake city fortification be "put into use"? Unless we're going to start a war with Leicester.

And how can you say timber framed buildings were "tried and tested" in terms of quality when most of them ended up being bricked up and the timber frames warped so much it gave them, well, the "quaint" thing that people like. They were peasant buildings - the rich built in brick & stone. The poor build in wood and cowshit. Or are you just saying you like the black and white criss-cross patterns in old buildings?

PCPT have some very interesting stuff where they don't aim to recreate, but just respect the fact that a timber frame has survived and incorporate it into a modern space. This is what good conservation should do, not wrap it in aspic and try to rebuild it as it was.

Well on FGS they seem to be able to ruin most things. That new shop front which was all nicely done out in wood recently, looked great plain. They've gone and put sign writing on it and it looks just as tacky as it did before.